Red-tailed Tropicbird

Phaethon rubricauda / Tava'e'ula

Mature birds have mostly white plumage with a conspicuous black stripe from gape, curving towards and passing through eye. Their bill is strong, decurved, and bright red. Their legs and feet are blue-gray with webs distally black. Red-tailed tropicbirds also have a white tail with long, red, central rectrices or tail plumes (36-55 cm).

Their calls are a guttural squawk in varying intensities and/or high whistle-like screeches.

They perform complex aerial courtship displays. Acrobatics consist of flying backwards, vertical displays and circles. Birds begin breeding after 4 years of age. Adults generally return to the same nest site each year. Nest sites are usually located in sheltered areas from the sun (base of a tree, in shrubs, next to a structure).

The female lays a large single egg, ranging in color from reddish brown to purplish black, directly on the ground in the shade of vegetation, a log, or rocks. Re-laying can occur if the first egg is lost or infertile. Incubation period varies from 39-51 days. Both parents incubate the egg. Average incubation shift lengths range from 8-9 days in some colonies.

During the first few weeks after hatching, chicks are attended and fed by one of its parents in shifts similar to those during incubation. Nestlings are brooded almost continuously for the first week. Feeding takes place on an average of every 17 hours. Unlike other Pelecaniformes, adults regurgitate food by putting their bills down the gaping chick's throat.

The chick-rearing period can range from 77 to 123 days. Chicks reach adult weight in six weeks. In 11 weeks, wing exercising begins and in 12-13 weeks, fledging occurs. Chicks fledge with a dark gray bill and white and gray plumage.

Facts About Red-tailed Tropicbird

Diet

Usually feeding during the day, Red-tailed Tropicbirds are solitary feeders and rarely fish within sight of land. They dive, wings half-folded, into the water to catch their prey. Red-tails consume mostly fish (flying fish, mackerel, dolphinfish, balloonfish) and squid. Their diet is about 4/5 fish and 1/5 squid.